Industry News

The Yamacraw Design Center,  the facility that will house Georgia’s initiative for technology economic development in broadband telecommunications, is being developed in Midtown Atlanta. The building will include institutional and commercial design technology demonstration studios; prototypes of labs for applied R&D; and incubator and industry representative office space for member companies. Lord, Aeck & Sargent of Atlanta is the architect for the project.

Cirrus Logic Inc. has plans to consolidate employees from its administrative, engineering, and sales functions at a new 190,000-sf corporate headquarters in Building V at the Terrace Business Park in Austin. The new facility has been approved for construction and will accommodate offices for approximately 500 employees when it opens in summer 2002. Manufacturing and testing operations will continue at the company’s 60,000-sf plant in Southeast Austin. The company will also maintain its storage applications operations in Fremont, Calif.

Biosquare, a $650-million biotech development, is under construction in Boston. Boston University and Boston University Medical Center are the developers of the project, which is being built in two phases. Phase one  encompasses 1.2 million sf of space including 60,000 sf of space for animal testing, an in-house incinerator, and a 1,000-car parking garage. Phase one is nearing completion. Phase two will provide 1.3 million additional sf of space for labs and offices, a 240-room hotel, and an a 1,200-car parking garage.

ONI Systems, a high-tech company based in San Jose, Calif., will locate its Lightwave Design Center at Nottingham Hall, a 105,000-sf building under construction in the Imperial Office Park near Research Triangle Park.  ONI plans to  employ 150 people doing product development in 54,000 sf—the top two floors—of the facility, which will also serve as a customer support center for ONI’s East Coast clients. Clancy & Theys is the general contractor for the building, which is scheduled for completion in spring 2001.

Northwestern University has awarded the Chicago office of Turner Construction Company a $25.9-million contract for the construction of the 86,0000-sf Center for Nanofabrication and Molecular Self-Assembly. The new, four-story plus basement chemistry lab building will house 16 labs, faculty and graduate student offices, conference rooms, and support spaces. The project scope includes laboratory casework, fume hoods, lab equipment, and extensive M/E/P systems and temperature controls required to support the lab environments.